nginx and dokuwiki farms

I am attempting to create a suite of dokuwiki's and thus want to leverage the farms. I am however struggling as the instructions are for apache. I can get a single dokuwiki running just fine but I am unable to produce a working farm concept via rewrite The reference material I have been using is: https://www.dokuwiki.org/farms https://www.dokuwiki.org/farms:example01 https://www.dokuwiki.org/tips:redirect_farm the redirect_farm is the one I have been concentrating on, especially step2 **Setup the URL binding** > Here we describe the simples URL rewrite method, using .htaccess under > Apache. > > Copy the following to /var/www/barn/.htaccess: .htaccess RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)/(.*) /farmer/$2?animal=$1 [QSA] RewriteRule ^/?([^/]+)$ /farmer/?animal=$1 [QSA] Options +FollowSymLinks > Test: Point your browser to http://localhost/barn/foo. You should see > the index of farmer. Point to http://localhost/barn/foo/bar. You > should get a 404 error “The requested URL /farmer/bar was not found”. > This shows that the URL binding works. > > If the test fails: > > .htaccess must be enabled in the in the Apache Configuration > (AllowOverride All); mod_rewrite must be Included. If you have a > redirection loop, your DocumentRoot needs to be /var/www/ (neither > /var/www/farmer/ nor /var/www/barn/). I have a sparce localhost.conf to recreate this and have included the equivalent rewrite: server { listen 80; server_name localhost; access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost_access_log main; error_log /var/log/nginx/localhost_error_log info; rewrite_log on; root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; #location ~ /(data/|conf/|bin/|inc/|install.php) { deny all; } location / { autoindex on; } location /barn/ { #try_files $uri $uri/ /wiki/doku.php @wiki; autoindex on; #alias /var/www/localhost/htdocs/farmer; rewrite ^/?([^/]+)/(.*) /farmer/$2?animal=$1 ; rewrite ^/?([^/]+)$ /farmer/?animal=$1 ; } #location ~ \.php$ { # try_files $uri =404; # include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf; # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; #} } when I goto http://localhost I see "**farmer**" and "**barn**". When I browser "**farmer**" it lists as "**farmer**". When I go into "barn" it lists as "farmer" so aspects of the rewrite are working. However... http://localhost/barn/foo returns 404 and this should list **farmer**. Looking at the debug logs: 2018/07/07 15:25:41 [notice] 17845#17845: *1 "^/?([^/]+)/(.*)" matches "/barn/", client: 127.0.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /barn/ HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost", referrer: "http://localhost/" 2018/07/07 15:25:41 [notice] 17845#17845: *1 rewritten data: "/farmer/", args: "animal=barn", client: 127.0.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /barn/ HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost", referrer: "http://localhost/" regex has detected but the wrong rewrite... the animal=barn shouldn't be such. likewise: 2018/07/07 15:25:44 [notice] 17845#17845: *1 rewritten data: "/farmer/foo/", args: "animal=barn", client: 127.0.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /barn/foo/ HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost" 2018/07/07 15:25:44 [notice] 17845#17845: *1 "^/?([^/]+)$" does not match "/farmer/foo/", client: 127.0.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /barn/foo/ HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost" 2018/07/07 15:25:44 [error] 17845#17845: *1 "/var/www/localhost/htdocs/farmer/foo/index.html" is not found (2: No such file or directory), client: 127.0.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /barn/foo/ HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost" I feel I am close but equally I now got to the point I don't understand nginx rewrite or what is needed for dokuwiki. any adive?